Our health should not be one of them. Better, it can't be one of them! It cannot be possible that our health prevents us from achieving what we want to achieve, making the path more arduous and difficult than it has to be, when the understanding of our biology and biochemistry has advanced so much. Instead of being against us, it should be at our side, at our service, and not boycotting every effort and every step.

I believe it cannot be our body that limits what we can achieve in life. I believe it is possible to increase the chances of achieving your dreams and meeting your goals when you discover why your body is not functioning at its best. That's why I do what I do.

My story in medicine started a long time ago. Being the son of who I am, from an early age I heard stories about how medicine was just a tool to achieve a therapeutic end, and was limited in how it approached complex chronic situations. Throughout my life I have heard stories of people getting fantastically better when science from other clinical disciplines, such as nutrition or psychology, was combined with medicine. I always thought it was normal that people could get better even when the case was complex.

Only during the medical course at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar of the University of Porto did I realize that 1. the diseases that I had always heard about getting better or disappearing were not supposed to get better or disappear, and 2. very little or almost nothing was said about the effective strategies that I knew were successfully applied in the clinic. Mental chaos was at hand! How come, in 6 years of medical school, there wasn't a nutrition course? Why were the chairs of physiology or biochemistry part of the first years and not permanently? Moreover, why hadn't the structure of the chairs of the course changed since the 70s or 80s, following the evolution of knowledge?

While trying to finish my degree, I continued to learn what my mother knew, studying and researching, drinking from her knowledge. For well over 10 years - in fact, for most of my life - I understood the fundamentals and treatments of this new medical approach, which is now called Functional Medicine, although it has been the only Medicine I have ever known.

During my internship to become a family doctor, the contrast with the success stories I heard at home became even greater. Every day I diminished the impact and suffering that chronic diseases caused in people's lives by using drugs: antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, antihypertensives, antidiabetics, antidepressants. However, it was no more than that. We went from "anti to anti", depending on what was most urgent. However, it was not possible, for lack of will or time, to put together the pieces of the puzzle of each one, to find the cause of the condition, to go beyond the symptoms, the evident demonstration of the problem (truth be told, how is it possible to do it when consultations have 20 minutes?).

So I am not your usual doctor. Despite being trained in medicine - or perhaps because I am trained in medicine - I know that it is possible to go beyond what is normally said to be possible, if you combine the best science from different fields, in an attitude of a keen researcher, allied to the curious spirit of a child at the age of whys. Hence, when confronted with the way the traditional medical system approached multifactorial and complex situations, its flaws became easily evident.

I'm not the usual functional medicine doctor either. My history makes me a rare case. I am one of the few second generation functional medicine doctors. My functional training was done over decades, from mother to son, in meetings and clinical discussions around the dinner table. That passage of knowledge has made my view of the body as a whole, my clinical research directed, and my understanding of how, by treating the upstream cause, the downstream demonstrations of the problem improve or disappear.

When, in those fun and heated discussions, I began to draw the clinical pictures, challenge my mother's experienced and unique reasoning and complete her sentences, we knew that the legacy was past. They say that "the son of a fish can swim." I hope so.

While I was still a medical intern, I started working at the clinic, starting step by step. We knew that one day I would have to take the helm and lead the team created over the years, continuing to help those who came to us.

That day has come. Throughout his life, he helped many people save themselves and recover their health. She managed to postpone her destiny twice, but she was not able (to win). In November 2014, my mother passed away, leaving me in charge of her life's project, which became mine. I thus became clinical director of the Dr Cristina Sales clinic - Functional Integrative Medicine.

We have been able to keep his legacy alive and perpetuate his commitment to those who come to us:

• The focus on details and particulars (where the key to the case often lies)

• The incessant search for the most appropriate therapeutic options

• The greatest possible knowledge of the best scientific evidence

• The personalization of the whole process

In search of the best therapeutic tools, I headed in March 2015 to São Paulo, Brazil, to intern with Professor Cícero Coimbra in his clinic, learning all the details and nuances of the Protocol Coimbra, the treatment of autoimmune diseases with the use of vitamin D. At the time, I was the second doctor in Europe to do so. 

The implementation of this therapeutic protocol went hand in hand with the development of the new era of the clinic. True to my mother's legacy, I have adapted to the new times and expanded the horizons and scope of our approaches. 

My curiosity to understand if genes were the missing piece in my arsenal led me, in 2017, to enrol in a training course in London on nutrigenetics, not knowing that it would be a defining moment in my professional career. Not only did I discover how I could improve clinical research and optimise the personalisation of treatments, but also the first steps were taken in strengthening my relationship with the Nordic Group.

In early 2018, I joined their international team of trainers, with a particular focus on the optimization of cognitive, sports and immune performance, being later invited to join their clinical board and lead the expansion of the international network of Nordic Clinic clinics in Portugal, Spain and Brazil, a partnership that ended in 2020

In 2019, and after consecutive postponements due to multiple professional commitments, I began "formal" functional medicine training through the Institute for Functional Medicine.

Over the past few years, requests for consultations have multiplied from all over the world. My commitment to those who have the courage to take responsibility for their health and the strength to fight for their dreams has led me to further open the doors of the practice and embrace new destinations. Besides Lisbon, I frequently travel to Romania, Greece and Scandinavia, allowing greater accessibility to our treatments. Currently I accompany people from more than 45 countries spread over 5 continents, with the same goal: to ensure that the body does not impose a ceiling on what can be achieved. 

Despite the focus on helping those who come to us and that is where I dedicate the most time possible, I travel to share my vision and the fruit of our clinical practice. From the Portuguese Parliament to the Kuortane Olympic Training Center in Finland, I have had the privilege of speaking on different stages throughout Europe about nutrition, sports and mental performance, nutrigenetics and autoimmunity.